I’ve felt strangely off the last few days, I’ve skipped my December period and I’m hoping beyond hope that I’m pregnant, in fact, I know that I am. I know my own body, but I decide to buy myself a pregnancy test just to be sure before I pass up an opportunity to consume vast amounts of alcohol during the New Year celebrations. I take the test as soon as we get to the hotel and it’s positive. I can hardly contain myself, luckily we had to drop the boys off en route for some interviews and I’m actually sitting watching my Husband live on the television as the two blue lines appear on the stick I just weed on and as I watch him, I hatch a plan.
New York in December is freezing, we have dinner with all of the band members later that night and I get away with saying that I’m saving myself for the next night when I turn down any drinks. We have an early night, and then spend New Year’s Eve daytime, lazing at the hotel and doing some shopping. When we head back, I get a manicure, a pedicure, and have my hair and makeup done in our room. Courtesy of the television station airing the show, the boys will play a two hour long set starting at eleven thirty, get the crowd warmed up and then count the New Year in and rock them through the first few hours of the year two thousand. We arrive around nine and are interviewed by various TV stations and shows about what the new millennium means for us and we give up more than usual by admitting that we are moving into a new home and looking to start a family. I wait for the boys to start their set before I talk to the shows director and tell him what I want to do. He’s over the moon and gets the announcer on the TV broadcast to repeat to the viewers to stay tuned for a very important announcement regarding Carnage. I don’t tell Ash, I don’t tell Jim and at five to twelve when I walk on stage in between songs and stand next to my Husband, everyone seems a little confused but Sean just goes with it.
“Hey baby,” he says to me but into his mic. “This is my beautiful Wife New York City, just look at her, ain’t she just fuckin’ gorgeous!”
The crowd goes wild and my cheeks burn despite the cold, I wrap my arms around his neck, and I kiss him like my life depends on it, making the roar from the crowd deafening. Then hand him the stick with the two little blue lines on, saying into his ear, “Happy New Year baby, we’re pregnant”.
He looks at the stick, registers the words I’ve just told him, and I watch as his mouth drops open. I nod at him. There’s a camera crew right in our face but we don’t even see it, we just have eyes for each other. Sean bursts into tears and kisses me so softly. The people at home have obviously been told what’s going on, but the crowd in front of us have no idea what’s happening. Sean moves the cameraman out of the way pulls me into his side and sobs into his mic.
“My Wife, my beautiful Gia, has just made me the happiest man alive, she’s told me people that… ” He pauses and I don’t know if it’s for effect or so that he can regain his composure. “SHE’S FUCKING PREGNANT!” he roars. The crowd roars, Jimmie, Ash and Lennon are all on the stage with us and the rest of the boys from the band, we all kiss, cry and hug and count our way down to the year 2000 and it will forever be one of the happiest moments in my life.
***
We celebrate back at the hotel into the early hours; I head off to bed around five, leaving Sean and the rest of the boys and a few other people I don’t even know, to party. I’m woken at around eight am by someone banging on the door of the suite, as I look through the spy hole, I see that it’s Milo and Dave, carrying Sean between them. I open the door and look at the state my Husband has got himself in, he is, quite literally, legless; he grins at me. “Gia, baaaby,” he tries to sing to me. “I’m sooo fappy, huck, huckin, fuck.” He looks up at me and laughs. “You know what I mean.”
“Park him on the bed.” I stand aside so the boys can fit through. They take him through the lounge area and into the bedroom, laying him face down on the bed. The boys are both puffing and sit down for a few seconds.
“Are we gonna make the flight?” I ask them.
“Fuck knows,” they both say together, they high five at their unity and I smile.
“You two want a coffee, some food?”
“Na, we’re good thanks George, we’re all coffeed out. You might wanna try and get some down his Gregory in a coupla hours. I can’t see them getting us another flight out of here on New Year’s Day, private jet or not, so if we don’t get on this one, I reckon we’ll be stuck here for a few more days.”
I feel absolutely exhausted now and just want to get my head down before I work on getting my Husband sober. “What’s the latest we can be at the airport?”
“About four but Marley’s in an even worse state than him and Lens not much better.” I shake my head.
“We even had to carry Ash to bed.” Dave laughs.
“Well it’s gonna be a quiet flight home.” Dave nods his head.
“That’s not a bad thing. You alright George, you look a bit pasty?”
I don’t actually feel too good but I don’t know what sort of not good it is that I’m feeling, I’ve never been pregnant, perhaps this is normal. “I’m okay thanks Dave; just need some sleep I think.”
“Well don’t you go trying to lift him, just call me if you need anything and try and get your head down for a bit.” I’m touched at his concern, I thank them for returning my husband to me and tell them to go and get some sleep.
The boys leave and I pull off Sean’s chucks and undo his jeans, but I can’t get them down so I just curl up on the bed next to him and manage to get another four hours sleep. I wake up to the sound of Sean throwing up down the toilet. Well at least he woke up and didn’t do it over the side of the bed as he has done before, more than once. I get up and go and make us a coffee. I’m starving so I call room service and order us a couple of fried egg sandwiches, always the perfect hangover cure, fresh orange juice and some real coffee. Sean actually manages to eat his and half of mine. I’m still not feeling so good and don’t fancy being stuck on an eight hour flight with a funny tummy.
“You need to eat more G, I’m finally gonna get to fatten you up,” he smiles at me as he speaks; he hasn’t stopped smiling since I gave him the news about the baby.
“Not hungry right now, got a bit of a funny tummy.”
“You okay to fly?”
“Yeah, I’m fine; just don’t wanna be stuck in the toilet the whole flight, that’s all.”
As it turns out, I’m barely allowed to breathe on the flight, let alone get up and use the bathroom. Sean makes me lay back on one of the lazy boy style chairs, puts a blanket over me and tells me to sleep. Everyone else is extremely hung over and very quiet, the cabin lights are dimmed and everyone seems to go off to sleep, although I do hear the bathroom doors opening and closing and people throwing up and I really do not envy them their hangovers, although, I can’t help thinking that despite the fact that I didn’t touch a drop of alcohol, I still feel rough, my belly seems to have settled down but I have a dull ache in my side and I’m feeling a bit clammy.
Sean is snoring beside me, Ash and Marley are in the seats facing me, and Jimmie and Len across the aisle, Milo and Dave are in the front section with Billy and Tom and their wives. I press the call button and our stewardess Sara appears at my side as if by magic. Sean had told her as we got on the plane that I was pregnant and she kneels down next to me now with a look of concern on her face. We’ve travelled with Sara looking after us a few times and I’ve always liked her, unlike some of the girls, she had never openly flirted with Sean or the other boys so I had never had cause to want to punch her.
“You okay Mrs McCarthy, you look a bit pale?”
“Please call me Georgia, yeah I’m okay I think, just a bit tired, didn’t get to bed until five, we did a bit of celebrating.”